Electrophoretic studies of ox serum. 1. The sera of normal cattle

Abstract

The sera of 51 normal Devon steers from 18-30 months old were analyzed electrophoretically in a phosphate buffer of pH 7.6 and ionic strength 0.18. The mean electrophoretic distribution was found to be albumin 46.6; alpha-globulin, 14.0; beta-globulin, 8.9; and gamma-globulin, 30.5%. The gamma-globulin comprises at least 3 minor components. The frequency distributions of these data are presented. The data for 30 of these steers indicated an absolute concentration of serum protein of 7.0 [plus or minus] 0.5 g/100 ml. A significant correlation was found to exist between individual values for the serum protein concentration and the electrophoretic distribution; the absolute concentration of serum albumin being maintained relatively stable close to 3.2 g/100 ml. despite much greater changes in the absolute concentration of the serum globulins.